In the Works - Community Newsletter May 2020 Newsletter | Page 31

This past month, our work focused
extensively on the opening of safe
sleeping sites where unhoused
residents can put up tents in
designated spaces set at least six
feet apart, with access to toilets,
showers, fresh water, garbage
pickup and charging stations.
Nonprofits provide security and
meals.
The first opened on Fulton Street
between the Main Library and
the Asian Art Museum where
a sprawling, unsanctioned
encampment had sprouted without
proper services and basic hygiene.
The second is located at the site of
a former McDonald’s at Haight
and Stanyan streets across from
Golden Gate Park.
Public Works painters, electricians
and plumbers worked to get the
safe sleeping sites set up, marking
off individual tent sites and
hooking up water and power. Our
construction management team
from the Building, Design and
Construction Division helped get
the projects off the ground, and
our street cleaning and landscape
crews pitched in.
We also helped set up a smaller
site with designated tent spaces in
a parking lot at 180 Jones Street
in the Tenderloin. Our crews go
through there regularly to keep the
area clean.
Other safe sleeping sites are in the
works.
In addition, the department has
been working to expand the
number of staffed Pit Stop public
toilets that are open around the
clock.
As essential workers, the
everyday work of Public Works
employees continues, from filling
potholes and responding to tree
emergencies to cleaning the streets
and designing and managing
capital improvement projects.
We also have a large contingent
deployed to the City’s Emergency
Operations Center and have been
involved in the development of
policies to help restaurants and
retail establishments operate safely
as shelter-in-place restrictions
that went into effect March 17 are
slowly eased.
As the crisis continues, Public
Works will remain ready to take
on the quick-changing demands to
help keep San Francisco safe. We
will get through this, together.